India: Driven to Compete

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The Blade's Steve Eder spent three weeks in India reporting on the rise of that nation's auto industry as a competitor with embattled U.S. automakers.

India, a nation of more than one billion people, is preparing to take Indian-made cars global. Its industry leaders face challenges, but they voice confidence that they can compete everywhere — including the U.S.

To tell this story to Blade readers, so many of whose lives are connected to the automotive industry, Eder sat down with the leaders of India's Big Three — Tata Motors, Mahindra Motors, and Maruti Suzuki, as well as the CEOs of Ford India and General Motors India. He also visited villages where peasants are losing their land to expanding car production plants.

Steve Eder, 26, is an investigative reporter with The Blade. Since joining the newspaper in 2004, he has worked on a series of investigative reporting projects, including an investigation of the rare coin business that was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.